Time to act like an adult...

RisingPhoenix1

Having a very lazy day today it seems

Spent £16.99 today on a firestick - I've been holding off on ordering one until the Amazon Prime deal days and it worked out well as they're very cheap today. My TV is getting to be quite an old smart TV and it doesn't like loading most of the apps without crashing so I'm very limited on what I can watch unless I use my laptop. 

Didn't get chosen for the overtime later in the month but that was only going to be a bonus shift anyway, I'll still be able to accomodate a trip home from my pocket money I have a work Christmas do in December also, but my spreadsheet already has my planned spends factored in as 'Extras' before I then calculate my pocket money for the month so everything should be in hand with social spends that month

The rest of my day is just going to be about tidying up and catching up on washing, all the joys of adult life I've neglected a bit whilst I've been working (knowing that I've got time off to catch up on it all)

RisingPhoenix1

Little overtime shift done and should get approved today by the very lovely supervisor who was on and agreed to do it which means I should see it in this months wages. 

Despite only having a nap for a couple of hours after finishing my night shift yesterday morning, I was still wide awake until about half 3 in the morning!! I can't win. I definitely can't stay awake all day after one it makes me feel sick where I'm so tired and I'd end up falling asleep mid-afternoon for hours. 

So whilst I couldn't sleep I made a 'Savings Forecast' sheet on my Debt Tracker spreadsheet. Alongside overpaying debts most months if all goes to plan between January and December next year I will have saved £3986
This will be a mix of savings for my family holiday next year, camping festival next year, car insurance (due in April then continued savings from then on), emergency fund, Christmas and a sinking fund for car stuff (MOT, service, odd bits and pieces). I have set a chunky target for the holiday, festival and Christmas to have saved, with the expectation that I shouldn't actually have to spend as much as will be in the pots, but I'll be comfortable knowing I won't have to be constantly checking my bank balance to see if I can afford things then whatever is leftover will just be another debt overpayment. 

I've updated my signature with a target debt-free date (July 2026) this is based purely on just what I should be able to overpay every month from June 2025 onwards. This doesn't factor in any additional Bank Holiday payments, overtime I might do, at least one (possibly two) pay rises for going up the band I'm in at work and any potential full & final settlement offers I make. So there is the potential for it to be a fair bit sooner but that should be all my debt gone at the very latest and for me to be debt-free for the first time since I was 18 getting payday loans (14 years of debt!!!)

I have to keep checking my spreadsheets, it makes me excited and hopeful and that keeps me motivated

Oh also - sticking to my food shop and cooking proper meals is also paying off - I have lost 4lbs!

RisingPhoenix1

The DCA I sent an email to the other day confirmed my final payment is the £14.96 on my spreadsheet so a tiny debt will be cleared at the end of the month couldn't really make sense of why they said it was showing a different amount but I've got it in writing they'll only take that amount then it will be closed. I need to remember to get confirmation emails as each debt is paid off I need them for my annual financial review at work and it'll be easier to have it ready rather than chasing for them when my review is due. 

My first one was in June when my debt would have been around £10,300 with 14 creditors, should be down to around £6,900 and 6 creditors for the next one. A £3,400 reduction in a year without being able to make any chunky overpayments for the most part is good going I think

Had one of my siblings round for dinner tonight so that prompted me to give the house a good tidy up and clean, dropped them home and now just chilling in front of the TV (and keeping an eye out for surveys)

RisingPhoenix1

Not much to check in with today, I haven't left the house so no money spent. I have done quite a few surveys on Prolific though! Did a small cash out today and should be able to do another cash out by the end of the week. There's one persistent one in my pending that is going right up to the auto approval date

I haven't done a single bit of housework or washing today so I really need to start catching up on the washing tomorrow, I'm hoping it stays dry tomorrow and I can get some of the larger bits at least starting to dry outside during the daytime. 

I think from next month I'll probably sign up to the Click + Collect delivery saver for Tesco so I'm not limited to trying to hunt down the cheapest slot as a lot of the time around work shifts I'm just not available for them. I think £14.94 for 6 months of collection slots is a reasonable personal spend  

2 weeks tomorrow until payday if I get the early option from Monzo, click + collect is already booked in for Saturday evening, will need one more shop after that. Thanks to my time off I'll only need to put a little more fuel in my car for two shifts when I'm back at work. Rent goes out on the 16th but other than that everything has gone out for the month. 

I'm just looking forward to the new month starting and having a proper budget with pocket money. Any Prolific survey money I get from that point on I have a rough plan to squirrel it into one of my savings pots then whatever I've got at the end of the month I'll either overpay a debt, put it in savings or do 50/50 depending how much there is. 

I did speak to all my creditors today to make sure they've all got my correct address so any letters I should get confirming debts have been paid off I don't have to worry further down the line about whether they will go to the right address  

joedenise

Do you have any Tesco club card vouchers?  You can use them to pay for your Click and Collect slots rather than cash.

RisingPhoenix1

joedenise said:

Do you have any Tesco club card vouchers?  You can use them to pay for your Click and Collect slots rather than cash.

I don't at the moment but that's good to know for the future

RisingPhoenix1

Couldn't sleep at all last night so gave up trying, read through loads more diaries on here and saw a lot of people mentioning YNAB so signed up for a trial - I love it! I'll still use my spreadsheet at the start of each month to make sure I know where my money is going, then will add it onto YNAB so that I can update any spends etc from the app on my phone so I can constantly check in for 'live' figures etc. I think that will really help it will be nice to see my 'net worth' gradually get better also!

Need to get some washing done today, pick something up from my dads and grab some butter whilst I'm out (out of the food budget, it was on my click+collect for tomorrow but need it before then), other than that I think it will be a chilled day/evening of keeping an eye out for surveys and getting a few bits done at home 

joedenise

Another YNAB lover here!  I've been using it for over 10 years now - started off with YNAB and only moved to the online version the beginning of this year when the old version started freezing every time I tried to add anything to it!  Think I got my money's worth though!  Cost me £60 in 2014 and lasted for nearly 10 years so about £6 a year.  My subscription is due again in January so once I'd used the trial period I set up a pot on YNAB so that I could pay for it in one go rather than monthly (it works out a bit cheaper that way).

RisingPhoenix1

joedenise said:

Another YNAB lover here!  I've been using it for over 10 years now - started off with YNAB and only moved to the online version the beginning of this year when the old version started freezing every time I tried to add anything to it!  Think I got my money's worth though!  Cost me £60 in 2014 and lasted for nearly 10 years so about £6 a year.  My subscription is due again in January so once I'd used the trial period I set up a pot on YNAB so that I could pay for it in one go rather than monthly (it works out a bit cheaper that way).

I've been tinkering around looking at how things work more today, I think I am really going to get on with it! I did a teeny budget for the fuel/food/rent money left for this month just so I can practise a bit with adding the transactions before I have my first proper month next month I imagine I'll have to pay probably 2 months monthly to fit into my budget but will probably be able to pay for a year after that then starting setting aside for the next yearly payment

RisingPhoenix1

Didn't manage a NSD today, I actually managed to get some butter out of the change in my purse and car but did need some vape liquid so picked a couple up whilst I was near my dads, so still very minimal spends. 

I think having this month where I can't really go out and do anything will set me up nicely for the following months where popping to the pub will feel like a treat rather than just something is part of my weekly routine - it's been nice to break the habit even if I didn't have much choice in the matter  

Got 3 loads of washing done but none of them done early enough in the day to put out on the line. The washing basket is now just 'mostly full' rather than overflowing I think it'll take another three loads over the next few days to get towels, bedding & dressing gowns done but then I'll be back on top of it again. I've been putting off the larger bits as I only have a 7kg washing machine and honestly with no prior knowledge of what size drums I've been using in the past I get worried about overfilling it. Mostly stemming from the fact I had a nightmare when this one got delivered with the cold feed pipe having a leak and just being constantly anxious from the first time I used it. I'll get over it once I've done a few loads of towels and the world didn't end  

Hoping for a NSD tomorrow, nothing planned other than washing, a last bit of tidying and then getting my click + collect. Hardly a very exciting lifestyle at the moment but I'm actually enjoying the peace and quiet and being on here reading everyone else's journeys is help keeping me motivated. I may even be brave enough to say hi on some of the diaries I've been following soon